The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) plays a vital role in our country, with its officers performing heroic life-saving feats almost every day.
Unfortunately, part of the job entails being on the receiving end of harassment from the very people they’re trying to help.
Worse still, it seems the number of harassment cases are trending up, with more reported in 2021 than the last 6 years.
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Some patients may get violent and abusive with officers, and are jailed for their offences.
In a news release sent to MS News on Friday (4 Feb), the SCDF revealed some sombre statistics.
There were a total of 29 cases of harassment against their emergency responders in 2021, they said.
This includes verbal and/or physical harassment.
Putting that into context, that’s 12 more cases than the 17 reported in 2020.
Though 2020 was probably an abnormal year due to the ‘Circuit Breaker’, the figure of 29 is also higher than the annual figures for 2016-2019.
Thus, in 2021, SCDF officers were subjected to the highest amount of harassment in 6 years.
That’s also a total of 140 cases in 6 years and an average of 23 cases per year.
As an illustration, the SCDF shared 5 cases of harassment experienced by its officers.
The most egregious incident took place on 21 Jul 2020, when an ambulance crew was about to commence medical assessment on a patient.
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The patient challenged a crew member to a fight, then unzipped his pants, exposing his genitals.
He then urinated on the officer’s right boot.
For that unsavory act, the man was jailed for 12 months and 3 weeks.
In another case on 3 Sep 2020, a male patient suddenly became aggressive.
He threw punches at a female ambulance crew, SCDF said, hitting in the chest.
The man also tried to spit in her direction.
He was sentenced to 8 months in prison.
On 25 Apr 2021, a patient hurled vulgarities at an ambulance crew member.
He also showed his middle finger at another officer.
For that, he was given 1 month and 3 days’ jail.
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A female patient started shouting at ambulance crew on 25 May 2021.
She then kicked an officer in the lower abdomen.
Following that, she kicked another officer, this time on the leg.
A 3rd crew member was then scratched on the arm by the violent woman.
She ended up with 5 months and 1 week imprisonment.
The 5th case, on 2 Oct 2021, involved a male patient who was uncooperative.
However, he soon became hostile and started spewing vulgarities at the ambulance crew.
He also punched an officer on the face.
The man was thus rightfully sent to prison for 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days.
While these incidents of harassments are unbecoming, SCDF Assistant Commissioner Yong Meng Wah pointed out that members of the public by and large “deeply appreciate” our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) officers.
Unfortunately, a minority will verbally or physically harass them.
This behavior could hinder patients’ pre-hospital care management, and affect their medical intervention.
Thus, any form of harassment won’t be tolerated and will be reported to the police, he said, adding,
Our emergency responders deserve to be working in a safe environment where they can carry out their duties to the best they could in protecting and saving lives and property.
This can’t be said enough, but kudos to our SCDF first responders who toil day and night to help Singaporeans in trouble.
They definitely do not deserve to be harassed under any circumstances.
Let’s resolve to treat them with the respect they’re due.
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Featured image adapted from SCDF on Facebook. Photo for illustration purposes only.
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